SpaceX has once again run afoul of federal regulators, who now want to fine Elon Musk's spaceflight company more than half-a-million dollars for what they allege are two separate launch violations last year.
The Federal Aviation Administration announced Tuesday its proposal to hit SpaceX with a total of $633,009 in civil penalties for what the agency claims were failures by the company to follow license requirements ahead of the launches. The news is the latest clash between SpaceX and the FAA, which briefly grounded the company's Falcon 9 rocket late in August.
“Safety drives everything we do at the FAA, including a legal responsibility for the safety oversight of companies with commercial space transportation licenses,” FAA Chief Counsel Marc Nichols said in a statement. “Failure of a company to comply with the safety requirements will result in consequences.”
In response, Musk, founder and CEO of SpaceX, took to his social media site X to indicate his plans to sue the agency for "regulatory overreach."
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The FAA, which licenses commercial rocket launches, said the proposed penalties are in relation to alleged infractions that occurred during launches in June and July 2023.
The first launch the agency cited is the PSN Satria Mission, which lifted off June 18, 2023 from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida with an Indonesian communications satellite, according to Space.com.
That May, SpaceX had "submitted a request to revise its communications plan related to" its license to launch from the Florida site, the FAA said in a news release. The request include two proposed revisions: adding a new launch control room at one of the facility's hangars, and removing from its procedures a readiness poll previously taken two hours before liftoff.
But before the FAA could approve the request, SpaceX went ahead with the PSN Satria launch with those revisions anyway, according to the agency, which is proposing a $175,000 fine for each of the two alleged violations.
The second launch happened on July 28, 2023 during Jupiter 3, according to the FAA. Also known as EchoStar XXIV, the launch involved a giant telecom satellite rocketing to orbit on a Falcon Heavy rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center.
The FAA is accusing SpaceX of using a new rocket propellant farm at the Kennedy Space Center that the agency had not yet approved. For that alleged violation, the FAA is proposing an additional $283,009 penalty.
SpaceX has 30 days to respond to the FAA after receiving the agency’s enforcement letters.
News of the proposed fines come just three weeks after the FAA opted to ground SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket following a fiery landing mishap.
Though the Aug. 28 mission was an otherwise successful orbital satellite delivery, a rocket booster tipped over and exploded upon returning to Earth. In response, the FAA briefly ordered that no Falcon 9 launches could take place until it had time to investigate the cause of the reason for the landing failure.
The Falcon 9 was once again cleared for takeoff within a couple days even as the FAA investigation continued.
The September grounding was the second in recent months: the FAA halted Falcon 9 launches for two weeks in July following an oxygen leak issue.
The FAA's proposed penalties against SpaceX also follow a groundbreaking commercial spaceflight mission that the company oversaw. The Polaris Dawn astronauts who flew to orbit on a SpaceX Dragon landed Sunday after a five-day mission that included a pioneering spacewalk.
Musk and other SpaceX officials have not been shy about keeping their frustrations with federal regulators a secret.
In a lengthy blog post last week, the company railed against regulatory requirements from agencies like both the FAA and Environmental Protection Agency.
"Unfortunately, we continue to be stuck in a reality where it takes longer to do the government paperwork to license a rocket launch than it does to design and build the actual hardware," SpaceX wrote in the post. "This should never happen and directly threatens America's position as the leader in space."
That post largely focused on SpaceX's Starship megarocket, which the company is developing to transport astronauts to the lunar surface – and perhaps even one day, Mars. SpaceX blasted the FAA for licensing the Starship for a November launch, despite the vehicle being ready since early August for its fifth test flight.
The gargantuan rocket, which has so far only undergone uncrewed tests, managed to once again make it to orbit in its fourth and most recent test in June before accomplishing a first: splashing down for its first successful landing in the Indian Ocean.
"This delay was not based on a new safety concern," SpaceX claimed, "but instead driven by superfluous environmental analysis."
Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at [email protected]
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